Duke had won its sixth consecutive ACC tournament. After a first half that saw Chris Duhon dive for a loose ball and unfortunately was impaled by a nearby camera and after J.J. Redick had his fifth consecutive atrocious half, the fatigued Blue Devils worked out the kinks in their game to take a 74-62 lead over the Terrapins with 4:58 remaining in both teams' third contest in about 72 hours.
Duhon recovered enough from his injury to maintain his role as floor general for one of the nation's top teams, Redick adapted his game to that of darting drives to score 16 point despite serious struggles with his outside shot, Shelden Williams put up his third-consecutive double-double, Daniel Ewing was confidently taking the ball to the hoop, and freshman Luol Deng was having another solid afternoon to complement his veteran teammates. To make matters worse for the Terrapins, their vaunted full-court press was failing, as the defense was actually increasing Duke's offensive efficiency rather than hampering it.
Maryland seemed to have exhausted its options.
This game was over.
Then Duke went into its slow-down game. This was far from a controversial move, as the method which has Duke run down the shot clock before making a scoring attempt has seen success multiple times. The method was so effective in Duke's wins at Michigan State and at Virginia that the delay actually increased the Blue Devils' lead rather than merely sustaining it. The only negative evidence of the semi-stall this year was seen against Florida State in Duke's 56-49 win on January 29. The Blue Devils nearly lost their comfortable lead before Duhon nailed a three to send the Seminoles packing.
But when the Blue Devils began to waste time Sunday against Maryland, Duke's offense fell apart. The Blue Devils' had just finished an offensive spurt that gave them a double-digit lead, but the team was tired. Duke was running solely on adrenaline after playing three games in as many days. Once the Blue Devils went into their delay set, this adrenaline vanished and there was no more offensive rhythm. Duke went scoreless for four of the last five minutes enabling Maryland to tie the game. Duhon almost salvaged the game by himself by scoring eight points in overtime, but these baskets were without any offensive cohesion, as the Blue Devils were out of sync from the moment they started the semi-stall.
The problem with the delay tactic is not without its history in Duke basketball. In December of 2000, a then No. 1 ranked Blue Devil team blew a 15-point lead with five minutes remaining to Stanford once the slow-down attack was implemented. That Duke team figured things out and won a National Championship. The 2004 Blue Devils have as much learning--if not more--and a lot less time to ready itself for another NCAA Title run.
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